Egypt’s Sisi wins presidential election with 90% of votes amid ‘unprecedented’ turnout to sweep to third term in office
- Election authority head Hazem Badawy said turnout reached an ‘unprecedented’ 66.8 per cent of Egypt’s 67 million voters
- Over 39 million voted for former army chief Sisi, who has ruled Egypt for a decade
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has swept to a third, six-year term as Egypt’s president, winning 89.6 per cent of votes in an election in which he faced no serious challengers, the National Election Authority announced on Monday.
The election took place as Egypt struggles with a slow-burning economic crisis and tries to manage the risk of spillover from the war in Gaza, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Some voters said the eruption of conflict in Gaza had encouraged them to vote for Sisi, who has long presented himself as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region – an argument that has also proved effective with Gulf and Western allies providing financial support to his government.
Voting in Egypt was held over three days on December 10-12, with the state and tightly controlled domestic media pushing hard to boost turnout.
Election authority head Hazem Badawy said turnout reached an “unprecedented” 66.8 per cent of Egypt’s 67 million voters – above the 41 per cent recorded in 2018.
There were no elections, Sisi used the entire state apparatus and security agencies to prevent any serious contender from even running
Over 39 million voted for former army chief Sisi, who has ruled Egypt for a decade.